1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to improved digital rights management and in particular to an improved method, system, and program product for digital rights management of captured content based on reconciling rules applicable to multiple elements combined within the captured content.
2. Description of the Related Art
More and more devices and applications are being developed and placed in the marketplace, where the devices are able to capture an image, a sound, or other content. In addition, many of these devices or applications allow capture of an image, a sound, or other content in a digitized format, where the content can then be easily distributed to other devices, transmitted over a network, or uploaded to a website.
Currently, a person or business that owns or manages the rights to content may distribute that content with digital rights management (DRM) rules for restricting use of the content. For example, the owner of rights to a trademark, a song, or a photo, may apply watermarking, encryption, or digital rules when distributing or outputting the content, to attempt to regulate digital usage of the digitized content by others.
Current DRM rules and systems do not, however, protect a content owner against unauthorized use of the content owner's work or image when that content is captured and distributed by another person. In particular, with the increase of portable devices and capture application, there is increased ability for an unauthorized user to capture content at many different locations. The owner of the rights to the content currently does not have a way to manage digital use of this content when captured by others. For example, if a person takes a picture that includes an image of a trademark, while the trademark holder may distribute authorized digital copies with DRM rules attached, the trademark holder does not have a way to manage the rights to use of the trademark captured by another person independent of the authorized digital copies distributed by the trademark owner. In another example, if a user captures a portion of a content owner's copyrighted website and places the captured portion on a blog or other online publication, the copyrighted content owner does not have a way to manage the rights to use of the copyrighted images on another person's online publication. In yet another example, a song owner may distribute authorized digital copies of a song, but if a person makes a digital copy of a song from a physical CD and distributes the digital copy of the song without the permission of the song owner, the song owner does not have a way to manage the distribution of the unauthorized copy of the song.
With the pervasive nature of the Internet and the ease with which captured content can be posted on websites and transmitted worldwide, it is not only businesses with ownership of trademarks and trade secrets, but also copyright holders, individuals, and authorized content distributors who desire to enforce their right to limit use of their physical likeness, who have a need to regulate the use of captured content.